Citizens sue rather than take the blame

Thursday, January 8, 2004Michael Jensen

An Indiana man is threatening to sue his cable company because the man says he's now addicted to television, his wife is overweight and his kids are lazy, channel-surfers. And you thought it couldn't get any sillier?

The man claims he canceled his cable service nearly four years ago but a mix-up at the cable firm continued the television service free of charge. Despite efforts to hide his television set from his family, the wife found the TV, reconnected the cable and continued to watch television for hours daily. As a result of the cable addiction, his wife gained 50 pounds, his kids became addicted and the man increased his smoking while watching non-stop television.

How many more examples do you need before you recognize that we have gone crazy over lawsuits in this nation? Never mind the suit against the fast food industry, etc., this potential lawsuit takes the cake. And should this crazy case actually makes it way into the court system - which is doubtful - we should impose penalties against those who clog the system with their twisted logic.

In some future generation perhaps, we'll return to the issue of personal responsibility. We'll understand that bad decisions by individuals often bring bad results. And we'll learn not to point a finger of blame at someone for our own personal choices.

But for now, in our litigation-happy society, we'll have individuals who threaten lawsuits such as this.